From Media Day until opening night, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann will provide a key stat for each team in the league and show you, with film and analysis, why it matters. Up next are the Boston Celtics, who are starting over without Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

The basics

BOS

Rank

W-L

41-40

16

Pace

94.0

17

OffRtg

101.1

20

DefRtg

100.4

6

NetRtg

+0.7

14

The stat

17.9 percent – Difference between Jeff Green’s 3-point percentage from the corners (45.0 percent) and from above the break (27.1 percent) over the last three seasons.

The context

That’s the biggest difference among 134 players who attempted at least 100 threes from both the corners and above the break over the last three years. (The league-wide difference is 4.0 percent.)

In his two full seasons with the Celtics, a Green corner three has been worth 1.35 points per attempt and a Green above-the-break three has been worth 0.81. That’s the difference between a great shot and a bad one.

Biggest difference, corner 3P% vs. above-the-break 3P%

Corner 3

Above the Break 3

Player

FGM

FGA

FG%

FGM

FGA

FG%

Diff.

Jeff Green

76

169

45.0%

58

214

27.1%

17.9%

Kawhi Leonard

75

170

44.1%

31

113

27.4%

16.7%

Chandler Parsons

90

191

47.1%

122

381

32.0%

15.1%

*Shawne Williams

77

191

40.3%

28

105

26.7%

13.6%

Corey Brewer

112

329

34.0%

42

200

21.0%

13.0%

Arron Afflalo

148

334

44.3%

117

374

31.3%

13.0%

**Martell Webster

114

236

48.3%

117

325

36.0%

12.3%

Darren Collison

46

105

43.8%

77

242

31.8%

12.0%

***Shannon Brown

52

120

43.3%

128

407

31.4%

11.9%

Rashard Lewis

89

218

40.8%

65

224

29.0%

11.8%

* Williams’ discrepancy was the source of this great line from my man Howard Beck (now with Bleacher Report: “And Williams is reliable only from the corners — meaning even his one dimension is one-dimensional.”)
** Led by Webster, the Wizards are the Jeff Green of 3-point shooting teams.
*** Geez, Shannon Brown. Take a look at your shot chart before you go and take more than three times as many threes from above the break again.

Three seasons ago, Green took 80 more above-the-break threes than corner threes. But last season, upon returning from heart surgery, he took more corner threes.

A closer look reveals that the difference may have been the team Green has played for. Upon being traded from the Thunder to the Celtics in February of 2011, Green found himself in the corner a lot more.

Jeff Green 3-point shooting

Corner 3

Above the Break 3

Season

Team

FGM

FGA

FG%

FGM

FGA

FG%

2007-08

SEA

16

45

35.6%

5

30

16.7%

2008-09

OKC

23

59

39.0%

73

187

39.0%

2009-10

OKC

41

118

34.7%

63

192

32.8%

2010-11

OKC

20

46

43.5%

36

135

26.7%

2010-11

BOS

8

18

44.4%

0

9

.0%

2012-13

BOS

48

105

45.7%

22

70

31.4%

SEA/OKC Total

100

268

37.3%

177

544

32.5%

BOS Total

56

123

45.5%

22

79

27.8%

That’s a product of the two teams’ offenses. In four full seasons under Scott Brooks, only 22 percent of the Thunder’s 3-point attempts have come from the corners. In the same time, 29 percent of the Celtics threes have come from the corners. And that number was up to 34 percent over the last two seasons.

Here are Green’s seven 3-point attempts from that March 18 game in which he almost single-handedly ended the Heat’s winning streak at 22 games. He was 4-for-4 from the corners and 1-for-3 from above the break…

Your browser does not support iframes.

Brad Stevens brings a new offense to Boston, Rajon Rondo‘s absence means that Green will have the ball in his hands more, and the departures of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett mean that he’ll be asked to carry more of the offensive load. All that could certainly mean less attempts from the corner.

Through five preseason games, Green is 5-for-10 on corner threes and 0-for-11 from above the break. So the saga continues…

3 Comments

you cannot really judge with statistics alone
it cud mean that being in the corner ur determined to shoot as u hv no where to go (or hv the least option)
therefore ur more focused
where as above the arc u hv so much more options that u cud be distracted/indecisive etc

this does not tell the whole story. there may be other factors that need to be taken into consideration. e.g. that corner threes are usually the result of a ball rotation from one side of the court to another or from a kick out by someone driving down the lane which causes the defense to collapse. this means that it’s more likely that corner threes are less guarded than threes above the break. stats are only 50% of the story. You have to do the eye test. Using stats in isolation is like shooting free-throws with your eyes closed. You’ll end up missing a lot of the details.